My Tivo HD has started making a squeaking noise. More recently I'm experiencing enough pixelation to make most shows unwatchable. I have TWC - its worked fine for years.

I decided its likely the hard drive causing the issue so I purchased a new drive and used winmfs to create a new 1TB drive (I had upgraded to a 1TB around 5 years ago) and installed that. The noise and pixelation is exactly the same.

I read that the noise could be from the fan, so I've tried stopping the fan with a toothpick. It's not the fan.

My Tivo HD has started making a squeaking noise. More recently I'm experiencing enough pixelation to make most shows unwatchable. I have TWC - its worked fine for years.

I decided its likely the hard drive causing the issue so I purchased a new drive and used winmfs to create a new 1TB drive (I had upgraded to a 1TB around 5 years ago) and installed that. The noise and pixelation is exactly the same.

I read that the noise could be from the fan, so I've tried stopping the fan with a toothpick. It's not the fan.

-noise follows the Tivo
-slightly louder w/ hood off
-disconnect the HD and power on - No noise! This is strange though, because when it does make the noise it appears to be coming from the power supply area. When I kill the power it does make a very brief squeak that sounds like the near constant squeak I get when the drive is attached.
-Old drive to PC - no noise
-New drive to PC - no noise

-when I powered on the drive it made no noise (just a very quiet indication it was on but not the offensive squeal.
-then I powered on the Tivo and the noise was there just as strong as normal.

So in summary
1) drive on its own produces no noise.
2) tivo with no drive produces no noise (except a brief squeak when I kill the power)
3) tivo + drive squeaks terribly.

I was thinking that if the power supply is failing, that relieving it of the load of the hard drive's current demands would maybe take enough pressure off of it that it wouldn't squeal.

And it sounds like I was right, in that without the drive drawing current because of not being connected, it doesn't squeal.

But apparently the power supply is so near the edge that just the current drawn by the motherboard to talk to the drive is enough to make the difference.

Which shows that when a Series 2 or Series 3 platform TiVo gives trouble, the odds say suspect "capacitor plague" in the power supply first and eliminate that as the cause before troubleshooting further.

If you know by which end not to pick up a soldering iron, you can probably fix things for about $10 in parts--those parts being low ESR, 105 degree rated electrolytic capacitors of various uF and V ratings.

unitron - just wanted to give you the update. You were 100% correct it was the power supply. I took a power supply off a used Tivo HD and replaced the bad one. It runs great now. Thanks for your quick help in diagnosing the problem. I appreciate it.

unitron - just wanted to give you the update. You were 100% correct it was the power supply. I took a power supply off a used Tivo HD and replaced the bad one. It runs great now. Thanks for your quick help in diagnosing the problem. I appreciate it.

Does that mean that you now have a spare 652/658 power supply, albeit one that needs fixing?

Ive got a Tivo Series 3 HD - the one with the silver bezel and the control buttons on the right hand side of the front in the round pattern.

About a couple of months ago, I started noticing horizontal pixelation, briefly. It wasn't that bad. It got a little worse.

Then a few weeks back it rebooted, and then after a few days it started the reboot loop.

I opened it up, and it was pretty gunked up. I cleaned it out, and self diagnosed the HDD was going bad. I bought a close to identical replacement (WD10eacs - 1TB), down loaded the MFSLIVE boot iso, booted the two drives and copied from the original to the "new" drive. I replaced the drive with the newly copied drive, and ... same reboot loop. I read a little further on the forums, and took the two cable cards out of the tivo and ... it booted fine, with the "new" drive and I kept all my shows. I added one of the cable cards back, and the 1 tuner works - though I'm still having some sporatic horizonal pixelation . So ... my new diagnoses is: it's the power supply, specifically it's not powering the tuners well, but has enough juice to power 1 tuner.

I am up to do some soldering on the PSU.

So - does my diagnosis sound correct?
Are there instructions on how and what to solder on the tivo PSU, and what parts are needed, and where to get them?

It contains a point to a project at the electronics supplier Mouser for the capacitors that should be replaced. I just did the job and it took about an hour. The lead free solder on the PSU takes more heat to melt than than the nasty old leaded solder I'm most familiar with.

The component side of the PSU board has the negative side of the caps marked with a cross hatch pattern. Make sure the "-" side marks on the caps go there. Avoid solder bridges and review the finished board real carefully to be d**n sure.

Power up the PSU before reconnecting the disc and motherboard so any stupids are limited to the PSU. Then unplug the PSU and reconnect the disc and motherboard. Usual cautions about keeping fingers out of the box while it is plugged in.

Plug the TiVo back in and see if it boots by watching the front panel until the time of day appears. Unplug it, put the cover back on, and pat yourself on the back.

Ive got a Tivo Series 3 HD - the one with the silver bezel and the control buttons on the right hand side of the front in the round pattern.

About a couple of months ago, I started noticing horizontal pixelation, briefly. It wasn't that bad. It got a little worse.

Then a few weeks back it rebooted, and then after a few days it started the reboot loop.

I opened it up, and it was pretty gunked up. I cleaned it out, and self diagnosed the HDD was going bad. I bought a close to identical replacement (WD10eacs - 1TB), down loaded the MFSLIVE boot iso, booted the two drives and copied from the original to the "new" drive. I replaced the drive with the newly copied drive, and ... same reboot loop. I read a little further on the forums, and took the two cable cards out of the tivo and ... it booted fine, with the "new" drive and I kept all my shows. I added one of the cable cards back, and the 1 tuner works - though I'm still having some sporatic horizonal pixelation . So ... my new diagnoses is: it's the power supply, specifically it's not powering the tuners well, but has enough juice to power 1 tuner.

I am up to do some soldering on the PSU.

So - does my diagnosis sound correct?
Are there instructions on how and what to solder on the tivo PSU, and what parts are needed, and where to get them?

Thanks,

And with no cable cards inserted, both tuners might work.

But yeah, even if you're wrong about the power supply, replacing the usual suspects among the capacitors now will save you having to do it in a month or three or six.

You should probably read through the entire thead, starting at page one, but someone has been kind enough to make a list of the caps you should replace on your 648's power supply.